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There is a batterer in the United States
Senate.
This abuser's spouse has suffered repeated
violent attacks, yet there has been no condemnation of this
Senator's violence. Ironically, this Senator, who is one of the
most controversial people in American public life today, has
somehow escaped reproach for the one thing that both detractors
and admirers should agree is genuinely inexcusable--domestic
violence.
Who is this perpetrator of domestic violence?
New York Senator Hillary Clinton.
The evidence against Ms. Clinton is strong.
According to Hillary's admiring biographer Gail Sheehy, author
of Hillary's Choice, one of the domestic assaults upon
Bill Clinton occurred in 1993, when Hillary slashed Bill
Clinton's face with her long fingernails, leaving a "mean claw
mark along his jawline."
The incident was first explained as a
"shaving accident" and a subsequent attempt was made to pin the
blame on Socks the cat. Because of the gouge's size, neither
explanation was accepted by observers. Dee Dee Myers, the White
House spokeswoman at the time, later explained to Sheehy that it
had been singer Barbara Streisand's visit to the White House
that had sparked Hillary's jealous, violent rage.
According to Christopher Andersen, author of
Bill and Hillary, Hillary also assaulted Bill on August
13, 1999, after the Monica Lewinsky revelations. Andersen
writes:
"...the President...weeping, begged her
forgiveness. Much of what transpired next between Bill and
Hillary Clinton was plainly audible to Secret Service agents and
household staff members down the hall. In the past, Hillary had
thrown books and an ashtray at the President -- both hitting
their mark...Hillary rose to her feet and slapped him across the
face -- hard enough to leave a red mark that would be clearly
visible to Secret Service agents when he left the room.
" ‘You stupid, stupid, stupid bastard,'
Hillary shouted. Her words, delivered at the shrill,
earsplitting level that had become familiar to White House
personnel over the years, ricocheted down the corridor."
Sheehy's account of the incident is similar,
adding that Hillary's friend Linda Bloodworth-Thomasen, who was
staying with her husband in the private quarters nearby,
"thought it was great that Hillary ‘smacked him upside the
head.' "
The US Department of Justice's Office for
Victims of Crime classifies these types of attacks--scratching,
slapping, hitting, throwing objects, and inflicting bruises or
lacerations--as "physical abuse" and domestic violence.
Bill Clinton handled the incidents in a
manner reminiscent of the way many female victims of
domestic violence did in the pre-feminist era. Ashamed, he
tried to cover the incidents up, even ordering his
representatives to publicly alibi his wife's violence. He
probably blamed himself for "provoking" her, as if marital
infidelity warrants physical assault. And he almost certainly
never considered calling the police or formally charging his
abuser.
The public's reaction has been of the "what
did he do to set her off?" variety--a "blame the victim"
mentality that would immediately be recognized and condemned
were the genders of the perpetrator and victim reversed. Media
coverage of the incidents has almost entirely consisted of jokes
on late night TV and talk radio. In narrating these assaults,
neither Sheehy nor Andersen mention ‘domestic violence' or even
write disapprovingly of Hillary's attacks. Needless to say, the
reaction would be quite different were it the president's wife
who appeared in public with lacerations on her face.
Nor were the incidents mentioned during
Hillary's 2000 Senate campaign. In fact, it was former New York
Mayor Rudy Giuliani who was publicly pilloried as a bad spouse
for his failing marriage, while the fact that his electoral
opponent was a known abuser merited little or no mention.
The Clinton incidents demonstrate that,
despite the overwhelming body of research which shows that men
and women initiate and engage in domestic violence equally, the
public still largely holds the outdated and discredited view
that domestic violence is synonymous with wife-beating.
Ironically, Senator Clinton herself has
spoken out on domestic violence on many occasions, and has
supported the Family Violence Prevention Fund's $100 million
anti-Domestic Violence campaign. The campaign's slogan is
"There's No Excuse for Domestic Violence."
What's Senator Clinton's excuse?
This column first appeared on World Net Daily (5/8/02).
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